New Delhi: Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government on Monday accused Pakistan of carrying out crossborder airstrikes, saying the attacks killed at least 36 civilians and wounded 163 others in three eastern provinces.
Islamabad, however, said they targeted militant hideouts, killing 29 “militants” in ground operations and airstrikes, in response to “multiple terrorist incidents” including Saturday’s attack on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi.
In a post on X on Monday, Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strikes as a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality”.
Afghan authorities said Pakistani aircraft struck residential areas in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces overnight. The deadliest strike occurred in Mandokhail village in Paktia’s Chamkani district, where officials said an initial airstrike hit a family home, killing an elderly man and a child.
Authorities alleged that Pakistani aircraft then carried out a second strike after villagers gathered to rescue survivors, in what is described as a “double-tap” strike—a controversial combat tactic in which the same location is struck again shortly after the initial attack. “Residents were rushing to help the wounded when there was a second strike,” Khalid Ahmad Sajad, the deputy head of Chamkani district, told a press conference.
The strike in Mandokhail resulted in “the martyrdom of 28 civilians and the injury of 158 others,” Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesman, said Monday in a post on X.
In neighbouring Paktika province, Fitrat added that six civilians, most of them women and children, were killed when a house was struck in Walust village. A third strike destroyed a civilian residence in Kunar province, though no casualties were reported there.
Pakistan has not acknowledged the civilian casualty figures and maintains that its strikes targeted militant infrastructure.
Islamabad said its security forces carried out a ground operation and cross-border airstrikes under Operation Ghazb Lil Haq, targeting “camps and safe havens” belonging to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-linked Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij in three eastern Afghan provinces.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Monday in a post on X that the operation followed “multiple terrorist incidents” inside Pakistan, including Saturday’s attack on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi, and that the operation resulted in the destruction of militant hideouts, weapons and ammunition stockpiles.
Tarar added that Pakistani security forces first killed four militants, including a senior Jamaat-ul-Ahrar commander, in an intelligence-based operation in Bajaur district before overnight cross-border airstrikes killed 25 other “militants”.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. Tarar described the group as “an Indian proxy”, though no evidence was provided to support the allegation.
India rejected the allegations. “We have seen Pakistani reports making baseless allegations against India regarding the recent incident in Karachi. We categorically reject them,”
The strikes mark the latest escalation in months of worsening cross-border hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan has launched multiple cross-border strikes, accusing the Taliban government of allowing the TTP and allied groups to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Kabul denies harbouring the militants and says Pakistan is violating Afghan sovereignty by carrying out repeated airstrikes that have killed civilians. Despite Chinese-mediated talks earlier this year, cross-border clashes and retaliatory strikes have continued.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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